Monthly Mint — 02.2023
A curated selection of hires and promotions from across crypto and web3. If you would like to sign up to receive this newsletter, please visit our website.
In case you already finished this month’s new season of Formula 1: Drive to Survive🏁, never fear — Marky Mark and the Crypto Bunch are bringing you an FTX documentary that’ll have just as much drama and even more flames 🔥.
It’s been months since the nuclear detonation that was SBF, but the crypto industry is still a zoo 🐼. Just ask Logan Paul. Tether is quacking in its boots (sorry, we just can’t pass up the opportunity for a Mighty Ducks pun 🏑). Kraken called it quits on staking services 🥩. Even Paxos stopped minting BUSD. We’re only two months in and it’s already been one hell of a year for Everything-In-The-World-Is-A-Security Gensler ⚖️.
In the wake of such regulatory concerns and irresponsible celebrity endorsements, it comes as no surprise that companies are pivoting their messages to highlight trust, safety and transparency ⭐. I guess you could say we’re getting back to Base-ics 😉. Speaking of, let’s take a moment to applaud our friends at Coinbase on the launch of their Optimism-powered Ethereum L2 Network 👏🏿. Check out this Bankless episode for all the exciting details.
JUMPing into some VC drama, two crypto venture stalwarts, a16z and Jump Crypto, fought it out this month in a battle of the bridges 🌉. As holders of the UNI token, both firms hoped to use token governance to benefit their respective portfolio companies, LayerZero and Wormhole, in the deployment of Uniswap V3. So how did the pink unicorn cookie crumble 🦄? Jump came out on top as UNI holders voted to deploy to Binance’s BNB blockchain using the Wormhole bridge. Forget the Year of the Rabbit, we’re in the year of Jump Crypto so far. Did we mention they recovered the stolen funds from 2022’s Wormhole hack? That’s right — jump jump jump, Jump Around🤸🏾.
Again, we’re only two months into the new year, so if “reading more” was one of your resolutions, check out this definitive web3 reading list 📚 for a few ideas to keep you going. If you’re looking for something more in the futuristic-dystopia-meets-Hunger Games-in-space🪐 genre, we’ll point you straight to the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. Newest book launching in May ✌🏽.
Who We’re Following
a16z: Eddy Lazzarin was promoted to Chief Technology Officer, Crypto. Eddy was previously Head of Engineering, Crypto. Surojit Chatterjee joined as an Executive in Residence (EIR). Surojit was previously Chief Product Officer at Coinbase. Link and Link
Anchorage: Rachel Anderika was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Rachel was previously Chief Risk Officer. Mark duBose joined as Chief Compliance and Risk Officer. Mark was previously Chief Compliance and Risk Officer at Centre. Dustin Palmer joined as interim Bank Secrecy Act Officer. Dustin was previously Managing Director, Financial Crimes Compliance at Berkeley Research Group. Link
Argo Blockchain: Seif El-Bakly was promoted to Interim CEO. Seif was previously Chief Operating Officer. Matthew Shaw was appointed Chairman of the Board. Matthew is currently CEO of Webslinger Advisors. Link
Binance: Noah Perlman joined as Chief Compliance Officer. Noah was previously Chief Operating Officer at Gemini. Link
Blockchain.com: Tim Lubans was promoted to General Counsel. Tim was previously Deputy General Counsel. Link
BNY Mellon: Caroline Butler was promoted to CEO of Digital Assets. Caroline was previously CEO of Custody Services. Link
Cardano Foundation: Andreas Pletscher joined as Chief Operating Officer. Andreas was previously an Advisory Director, Financial Services at PwC. Nicolas Jacquemart joined as Chief Legal Officer. Nicolas was previously a Legal and Policy Specialist at FINMA. Link
Circle: Ben Lay and Andy Hekimian joined as Creative Directors. Ben was previously Creative Director, North America at Crypto.com and Andy was previously Senior Creative Director and Interim Head of Creative at Meta. Link and Link
dYdX: Rashan Colbert joined as Head of Policy. Rashan was previously a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Cory Booker. Link
Fierce: Robert Cornish launched Fierce, a personal finance mobile app. Robert was previously the Chief Technology Officer at Gemini. Link
General Catalyst: Marc Bhargava joined as Managing Director, Crypto and Fintech. Marc is the previous Co-Founder and CEO of Tagomi. Link
MoonPay: Asiff Hirji joined as President. Asiff was previously President of Figure. Lindsey Haswell joined as Chief Legal Officer. Lindsey was previously Chief Administrative and Legal Officer at Blockchain.com. Link and Link
Pantera Capital: Marc Selfon joined as Chief Financial Officer. Marc was previously
Managing Director and Head of Strategic Accounts at Apollo Global Management. Katrina Paglia joined as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer. Katrina was previously Associate General Counsel, Crypto Assets at Coinbase. Link
Paradigm: Charlie Noyes and Dan Robinson were promoted to General Partners. Charlie was previously a Venture Partner and Dan was previously Head of Research. Link
Polygon: Rebecca Rettig joined as Chief Policy Officer. Rebecca was previously
Chief Legal and Policy Officer at Aave. Link
Ripple: Monica Long was promoted to President. Monica was previously SVP and General Manager of RippleX. Link
Intersection Growth Partners builds the leadership teams for many of the most exciting crypto and web3 firms in the world. Our venture fund provides these firms with capital: yielding deep alignment and extraordinary outcomes.
